Focus Areas

Research at MRRI has an international reputation for excellence. Our work is primarily conducted in three focus areas:

Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Rehabilitation

How do stroke, brain trauma and other diseases of the central nervous system disrupt cognitive functions such as language, attention, planning, action, and problem solving? What parts of the brain are critical for these abilities? MRRI researchers address such questions with cutting-edge behavioral and neuroanatomical techniques, and develop innovative treatment approaches to cognitive and language problems. Through collaborations that span MRRI’s focus areas, we explore research topics such as delineating shared representations that support both the control of movement and language.

Traumatic Brain Injury Treatments and Outcomes

What are the factors that affect recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI)? What are the most effective ways to treat the functional consequences of these injuries? Researchers at MRRI study recovery across the spectrum from disorders of consciousness to long-term effects of TBI within the family and community. As well as developing ways to measure and predict outcomes, MRRI researchers develop and test innovative treatments for the cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial effects of TBI. Our collaborations across focus areas allow us to pursue such topics as the effects of medications in multiple neurologic populations and the use of sophisticated imaging techniques to understand both focal and diffuse brain damage.

Movement Science and Mobility Rehabilitation

How are movements planned and executed in healthy individuals, and how are movements impaired by injury or disease? How are new movements relearned after injury or disease and what are the neuroanatomical changes from such relearning? MRRI researchers address such questions to help recovery of upper and lower extremity motor skills in individuals with neurologic injury and amputation. Using cutting-edge neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques in conjunction with kinematic movement analyses, MRRI researchers search for principles to guide effective rehabilitation. Collaborations across MRRI’s focus areas enable us to address the movement difficulties experienced by individuals with stroke as well as TBI.